Came across this great post earlier this spring, which makes us learn quite a lot about how information can be distributed despite lack of access to media outlets. Alfred Sirleaf runs a giant black board on a street of Monrovia, Liberia called the “Daily News”. Check it out:
Liberia’s Blackboard Blogger from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.
Alfred posts news from a network of volunteer correspondents from across the country. His writings are supported by symbols in order to get the message through to people with limited literacy skills. An analog blog can teach us how to think about online and offline communication in areas where internet, or let alone power is limited. Circulating information among people who already have the access to online information seems in the big picture much less challenging than broadening the scope to the wide public. Ushahidi, which we have praised on this blog, is trying to meet exactly those challenges of the online-offline disconnection by talking to journalists from traditional media outlets of radio and print, who still reach way more people.
Alfred plans to bring similar black boards to other parts of Monrovia and Liberia. It will be interesting to see how bloggers and online activists can learn to connect better with communities offline and bloggers like Alfred and the “Daily News” format could be a great place to start!
